Gaza cease-fire takes hold after flare-up

A CEASE-FIRE between Israel and Gaza’s dominant Hamas Islamists appeared largely to be holding yesterday, ending the most intensive flare-up in violence around the Palestinian enclave since a 2014 war.

In a day of fierce fighting on Saturday, Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes in Gaza, killing two teenage boys, and militants fired more than 100 rockets across the border, wounding three people in a southern Israeli town.

The cease-fire, the second between the two sides to be brokered by Egypt this year, came into force late on Saturday.

“Everyone understands that unless the situation is defused, we will very quickly be back to another confrontation,” UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov told reporters at his office in Gaza.

Israel said that in the initial hours of the cease-fire militants fired two rockets across the border, of which one was intercepted by its Iron Dome system. There were no reports of an Israeli counter-attack.

Later, two mortar bombs were fired toward Israel, which responded by striking the launch tube, the military said.

Weekly clashes at the IsraelGaza border have kept tensions at a high for months. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during protests at the frontier held every week since March, including a teenager on Friday, Gaza medics said. There have been no Israeli fatalities.

Israel says Hamas has been orchestrating the demonstration to provide cover for militants’ cross-border attacks. Hamas denies this.

“Our policy is clear: We hit with great might anyone who harms us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet yesterday.

Also yesterday, Israel’s military said it fired on “a Hamas terrorist squad” that was launching a helium balloon bearing flammable material into Israeli fields from northern Gaza.